Congress wants to derail Rafale deal for its selfish interest: PM Narendra Modi

In his maiden visit to Amethi as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi for trying to derail the Rafale deal for their own selfish interest and said that the anxiety in not getting kickbacks in defence deals was showing on the faces of those leaders.

Citing the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General, Modi said both institutions had said the deal was clean and in the country’s interest. “In the next few months, the first Rafale Jet will be flying in our skies. But they (Congress) are lying and making attempts to fail the Rafale deal for their own personal and selfish interests,” Modi said at a rally in Amethi, leading the crowd to shout slogans like ‘Rahul Gandhi Chor Hai’.

This comes a day after Modi had said the country was asking what all could have been achieved in the air strikes on Pakistan if India had the Rafale jets. “They sat upon buying the Rafale for a decade and sent the matter into cold storage while going out of power,” PM said on Sunday. Modi cited other defence deals done by his government like the Howitzer purchase, bullet-proof jackets for the Army or the joint venture with Russia to build the AK-203 rifles in an ordnance factory in Amethi as cases of Congress’ indifference to the country’s security. Also, in a clear indication that Smriti Irani will be fielded again by the BJP from Amethi, Modi said she has worked more for Amethi’s development than the area’s MP and thanked her for the same. “Smriti came as a young candidate here in 2014 and though we could not win this seat, we won hearts. For five years, Smriti Irani has worked hard for Amethi’s development and even harder than the MP here. She never made you feel that she had lost the election,” Modi said.